Keyboard Magazine Reviews

by NEiLtAnk

I have been a subscriber to Keyboard on and off for 15 years. I have always loved it. Great articles about the guys out there working, their rigs, and a “backstage pass” of sorts to the reader. There were and still are keyboard reviews, lessons, and all round keyboard “stuff”. Now, it has turned into being more about honesty everything BUT keyboards and keyboard players. There are so many MORE articles about drums,guitars, and production than keyboard centered content. Also, the articles about Keys players, are usually about THE SAME players the marquee guys in the prog and jazz world.

I also, used to subscribe to Electronic Musician, and it my have changed since I stopped my subscription, but all they are doing to keyboard magazine is just changing the cover. It’s THE SAME MAGAZINE with a couple more keys focused articles sprinkled in there. That is why we see so my articles that have nothing to do with keyboards or keyboard players.

Look, I get it I’m sure that there are good reasons why the magazine had to make this shift, but unfortunately there is nowhere for keyboard players to go to find keyboard content anymore. Keyboard PLEASE become a “keyboard magazine” again.

by Daner70

I've been a Keyboard reader and subscriber for many years and was excited to see an iPad version several months ago. Although it looks fantastic on a tablet it FAILS by not allowing a print subscriber to seamlessly carry over into an electronic subscription. From what I read, no-one wants to take responsibility for the confusion...

Keyboard, learn from Time and many other print-to-digital magazines and work this out. You're double charging people and ripping them off! At this point I'd have to let my subscription lapse and renew in the digital version.

by TheScottBradley

Clunky at best, now unusable in iOS 8. Can't download any issue (immediately crashes). Still only deserves one star even when working properly.

by ScaryRides

I had the same experience as Darvin. C'mon, Keyboard! How could you NOT have the email accounts of your present subscribers? Well, I guess I'll stick with the paper version for another year till this gets sorted out...(one word - Zinio!). BTW, I tried to give this zero stars, but KeyboardMagazine store won't allow it. So, one star, under protest!

by AZ Zel

How do I give this a negative star. Like another reviewer I've found the only way to get a magazine to open is delete KeyboardMagazine , reinstall and restore your purchase. Only then can you read a magazine. If you close KeyboardMagazine you're screwed. You have to start all over again. Too bad cuz the magazine is great, but KeyboardMagazine is crap.

by J. Glover

PLEASE fix KeyboardMagazine. Lots of authentication errors, crashes, re-downloads of magazines, doesn't remember which page you are on, web links are sketchy at best. I've been a loyal Keyboard reader for 25 years. Your magazine has always been of the highest quality. Please hire people to make your app match that level. This is rubbish.

by Blubearie

Love the magazine, hate KeyboardMagazine . I've been a Keyboard reader over 20 years. I recently started to read and subscribe on my iPad. KeyboardMagazine is terrible -- always been very rough compared to other magazine apps. After the iOS 9 upgrade, it has completely stopped working. I have no access to my magazines purchases of over a year. I would not recommend purchasing KeyboardMagazine.

by IpodHappy

Downloaded September issue which only explained that the new app had to be downloaded and a form filled out. I downloaded KeyboardMagazine , went to verify my subscriptions, entered my apple pswd, and nothing happened.

I tried reading an issue, typed my email and apple pswd, and got an error.

I hit the subscribe button and entered my info, thinking it would detect I'm already a subscriber, but it didn't. I now have two subscriptions, have paid twice, and am not happy.

by Themyscira

I have a subscription to this magazine and cannot look at the issues due to the fact that they did not updated for iOS eight. Business practice and I should get a refund.

by Jeffbernstein

While the content of the mag is great, KeyboardMagazine is sloppy and buggy. Navigation is rudimentary, and extra content is linked instead of embedded. Worse yet, some pages don't appear in full but instead have sections grayed out. In addition, the magazine can't be read without an internet connection. So I downloaded the February issue, I found it impossible to read on an airplane as the pages appeared fuzzy. Only with an Internet connection did they refresh and sharpen after a few seconds. These problems make the experience of reading Keyboard Magazine on an iPad fall far short of expectations. I would not recommend KeyboardMagazine nor the iPad version of the magazine.

by George W Not Bush

They rolled a new version of KeyboardMagazine without having migrated all the previous issues. Stay away from this until they get this fixed!!!!

by Gthrockstar

I have been a subscriber for 18 months and after a recent update only 7 issues show as available. No app support contact. FAIL!

by Ken M97

Lost over 2 years of back subscribed issues! Fix this problem now or I will be submitting a refund and if I have to I will seek out higher authority!

by Guitar Fellow

Since KeyboardMagazine update a few days ago, the back issues of the magazine before March of this year seem to be missing or unavailable. What is going on?

by Stevarino88

Stay away from the upgrade on KeyboardMagazine. I upgraded and immediately lost all of my downloaded magazines. They no longer have me on record as a subscriber. I’ve been an “All Access” subscriber for years and have had nothing but trouble. Now I don’t even exist.
Where do they get a 3.9 average rating? Out of 29 reviews, 26 of them are 1.0 ratings and that is only because there is not a lower score available!

by Gordon VH

I love the magazine, as I have for 40 years. But the store and subscription management on the iPad are brutally poor.

by Nitpick Pete

Had some issues with crashes at start up with the first download. Deleted app and reloaded with some advice from dedicated I.T. person. Now it works but still have to delete, reload, and restore purchase in order to download the next issue. I have been assured there is an update in process, though. 'Hope it is soon.

by NewMorning

It's a magazine so of course you have to subscribe. It's an electronic version of the paper magazine without too much more, but some links are active to follow up on ads.

I was only offered the annual subscription ($11.99), not the three month or six month choices, but who can complain about $1 / month? Unlike the print magazine it auto renews so you have to cancel if you don't want it.

Navigation is basically serial, you flip pages back and forth. There are options to navigate by thumbnail and article. The thumbnails don't appear for me (iOS 6.1) so the thumbnail navigation is useless, and the article navigation with the thumbnails is more challenging.

It's basic, but it's more convenient than paper. And of course the actual content is great!

by Danbula

It's crashing all the time.

by 1offive

I’ve had a subscription for a couple of years. It was great.
But I went on today and they want me to buy the latest issue. I have a paid subscription. I just renewed it. What happened?

by Pianocat

Keyboard is not what it used to be. It used to have so many great interviews with professional keyboardists who were on tour, studio musicians, and great articles about pianists like Bill Evans and Keith Jarrett. I would love to see more articles about keyboardists like the one from a famous contemporary band like Foster the People, and less articles about what microphone is the best in the medium price category. I can read about microphones and other non-keyboard gear in magazines like Electronic Musician, which should be different from Keyboard Magazine. I have enjoyed a few of the articles I’ve read in Keyboard in the past but would like to see more like the ones I mentioned above. The interviews with Benmont Tench and Booker T. Jones were great. I would love to give it five stars but can only give it four because I’d like to see it returned to the glory of the past.